Writers Union Confronts Occupational Hazards

February 09, 1989|By John Blades.

Like many other freelance writers, Betty Sherwood has a low tolerance for editors and publishers, certainly no love or affection. ``Every year the rates get lower and the conditions get worse,`` claims Sherwood, who specializes in software manuals, articles in trade magazines and other forms of technical writing that tend to ``cause people`s eyes to glaze over.``

Rather than suffer in silence and isolation about the occupational hazards and indignities of her profession, Sherwood joined the National Writers Union. ``Most writers think that in order to get published, you just have to lie down and be run over,`` she said. ``But the National Writers Union says you don`t have to take this. You can do something about it.``

Along with two other union officers, Sherwood will discuss just what can be done when she appears at a union workshop Saturday in Chicago on how to deal with editors and publishers. In Sherwood`s case, the advice might be to avoid them altogether, because her segment of the program will be devoted to self-publishing.

While joining the union didn`t immediately solve her professional problems, Sherwood said, it did provide her with plenty of aid, comfort and company. ``It helped me to get to know other writers in Chicago, to find out what their problems are.``

For Jerry DeMuth, an ex-newspaperman who was a founding member of the Chicago local, the union`s chief accomplishments have been steady, if undramatic. ``The most frequently cited case,`` he said, ``is the union`s class action suit against Larry Flynt, whose Rebel magazine went bankrupt. The union was able to get the money Flynt owed to writers for their articles.``

Otherwise, said DeMuth, also an officer with the Chicago local, ``it`s been a series of slow battles, like trying to get payment for a magazine article on acceptance, rather than on publication, which usually means a month or two after publication. But the union has been most important in putting me in touch with other writers. It`s a real mix, from authors of books to people like myself who do business-trade writing.``

Organized five years ago, the union claims almost 3,000 members nationally, among them Judith Rossner, William Kennedy and Grace Paley. In the Chicago area, about 100 writers are members of the union, perhaps the most prominent of whom is John Conroy, winner of three literary prizes, including a Carl Sandburg Award, for his book ``Belfast Diary.``

Conroy joined the union during a dispute over a payment with Mother Jones. ``They`d assigned me an article, then the editor left,`` he said, ``and they wanted to pay only half what they`d agreed on. The union filed a grievance against Mother Jones and got me full payment.``

Filing grievances against offending magazines and publishers is only one function of the union, according to Judith Cooper, a former chair of the Chicago local. The union has contracts with a number of magazines, including Mother Jones, the Nation, the L.A. Weekly and Ploughshares, which establish minimum rates for articles and ``kill`` fees for work assigned and then rejected.

The union also is working with commercial publishers, according to Cooper, so that authors can get ``more comprehensible royalty statements and more frequent payments.``

These and other issues will be discussed at Saturday`s seminar, from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Entrepreneur Centre, 230 N. Michigan Ave. Besides Barbara Sherwood, workshop leaders are Virginia McCullough, a ghostwriter and co-author of several books (such as ``TMJ: The Overlooked Diagnosis``), who will explain how writers can package their works for editors and agents; and Robert Leopold, co-author of ``Basic Plus and VAX Basic Structured

- Three scholars and/or political writers will discuss the importance of the black vote, nationally and locally, in a program at 7 p.m. Friday at Guild Books, 2456 N. Lincoln Ave. The panelists include Abdul Alkallmat, professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Illinois and author of ``The New Black Vote``; David Fremon, author of ``Chicago Politics Ward by Ward``; and Jerome Scott, director of Project South .and contributor to the book, ``Race, Class and Politics in City Hall.`` Call 525-3667.